Excellent performance by Adam Zajíček at 10 km - 41:24 min (PB) and very good performances by Czech juniors Klimentová and Franklová on the same track!! The premiere of the Czech marathon relays and the setting record of the Czech Republic was surprisingly created by the veteran pair Pohlová-Kučerová / Kolář - 3:42:04!! In the juvenile categories, Daniel Mochal gave an excellent performance at 5 km - 23:19 min (PB), in the 3 km class, Hynek Svoboda dominated in a great time 14:41 min (PB), another ward of the successful coach Karel Ketner.

He was very negatively surprised by the bad surface of the race track (even the lack of marking of these irregularities on the track!!!) - how can this be a Gold Level Meeting - just a tradition??? Appalling.      

RESULTS  

On Saturday 16.3. the Slovak spa town of Dudince hosted the 43rd edition of the Dudinská 50. This time, the organizers prepared a new circuit with a length of 1 km. The circuit was significantly more favorable for pedestrians, unfortunately the asphalt surface has had its best years behind it and the golden meeting of the Pedestrian Tour deserves to be repaved. 185 male and female walkers from all over the world lined up for the start of their race, along with 4 relay teams.

The races were watched by 3 Olympic winners. Josef Pribilinec, Matěj Tóth found their way to the circuit, and the best world walker of all time, Robert Korzeniowski, brought the Polish youth athletes. 

The longest race of the day was the relay race. Among the 4th teams were 2 from the Czech Republic. The race was clearly dominated by the Greek relay team. With a performance of 3:18:38, Greece ranked 17th in the reduced world ranking. The second Croatians faced 5 reds and withstood the penalty for 5 minutes, with a performance of 3:34:02 they won a convincing second place. A big fight was going on for the third position. The relay team consisting of Malysa - Bugárová played for a long time in prim. The veteran couple Kolář - Pohlová Kučerová (photo on the left) started more cautiously, losing 6 seconds after the first section. Even after the second handover, the younger pair of Malysa - Bugárová led, and during her second leg, Malysa tried to gain a decisive lead for her partner. At 29 km they were already leading by more than half a minute, but at that moment Kolář pulled away and literally swept past Malysa during one circuit and sent Pohlová with almost a minute's lead into the last section. Štěpánka continued to increase the lead, and so the veteran competitors managed to take 3rd place and at the finish line they could celebrate the established Czech record of 3:42:04. The performance still needs to be approved by TIME, but nothing should stand in the way of that. The pair Bugárová - Malysa finished the race in 3:44:43.

In the end, only 3 walkers lined up for the start of the 35 km race. Caporaso won convincingly, whose performance of 2:34:44 is this year's best world performance. Most of the walkers, however, will not prepare for the fast thirty-five until after the Olympics.

Adam Zajíček clearly dominated the 10 km race. Although he wanted a slightly better performance himself, the convincing victory and performance of 41:24 is an improvement from last year by almost 50 seconds. In addition, Adam went very clean indeed and his performance was flawless. An excellent promise towards the race in Poděbrady. Jaromír Morávek kept pace with him for the first 4 km, but then he started to lose, and by then he quickly took the solid technical performance for granted and Morávek was rightfully disqualified.

PHOTO: BEST CZECH RACHER IN DUDINCÍ - ADAM ZAJÍČEK 10km - 41:24 (PB), COACH KAREL KETNER - BRAVO - BRAVO - BRAVO!!!: 

Among the juniors, the Mexican Barba won with a performance of 42:06. In 5th place, Albert Kukla reached a huge personal record with a technically perfect style. The time of 44:02 is an improvement of more than 2 minutes and above all moved Albert to the Walking Team WC in Antalya. Although the limits were not officially listed, a condition of 44:30 was given off the record. The ease with which Albert flew through the track suggests that he could already get under 44 minutes in Poděbrady. The Bunny with the Pupa is an excellent business card of Coach Ketner. Another Czech pedestrian, a first-year junior, Vojtěch Novák from Frýdek, finished in 11th place. Coach Nejezchleb's protege also significantly improved last year's time and scored 47:15 at the beginning of the year! Great.

Among the women, Michaela Bakliková finished fifth in the 10 km, she also improved last year's personal record by almost a minute - 53:36. Vivien Uvírová then finished in 59:27, when she got under the one hour mark for the first time!

Among the juniors, Ema Klimentová took silver. She lost 2 minutes to the winner Cortes from Mexico and was not satisfied with her performance of 48:35. In reality, however, there is no need to be sad. OR from last year's Poděbrady 48:15 was unique, in the entire 2023 season she competed at a level of approx. 50 min. So far this year, she has competed in Turkey and Slovakia, and in both races she went 48:30. The performance has de facto stabilized just below the OR level and when everything comes together, there will be a significant improvement. However, Ema has to work a lot on her technical performance, as she faced 2 red cards last year in Poděbrady, and if she wants to think about better performances, she needs to improve her technique.

For the first time under 50 minutes, another coach Čermáková - Alžběta Franklová managed to finish in the large OR. She performed 49:18 with a concentrated performance and, above all, a technically sure step. Bravo!

Both juniors said they would start in Antalya. 

Czech walking also had its representatives at a distance of 5 km. Daniel Mochal also recorded an improvement, the time 23:19 is excellent for his age. However, it is also necessary to work on the technical implementation. For the first time under 25 minutes, Ondřej Plecháček came in fourth place (24:25) and the third teenager Vojtěch Vejvančický showed a performance of 25:35 OR. All three teenagers have just transferred from the pupil category and we can look forward to their further improvement already in Poděbrady.

Among the teenagers, Eliška Říhová from Frýdek (6th - 27:26) and Dojčárová from Pilsen (8th - 27:42) achieved significant OR.

Another protégé of Karel Ketner, Hynek Svoboda, secured the victory for the Czech Republic at a distance of 3 km. In his third walking race, he already got under 15 min - 14:41 and improved from the hall by 2 minutes. Hynek runs excellently, but walking really suits him. Miroslav Myška (16:04) from Frýdek won the silver, also in OR.

Noemi Maják from Kadana finished sixth among the students, and she also showed a performance shift against the hall - 16:35. Zvonková (17:29) and Krasulová (18:01) also achieved the best performances.

The most anticipated race of the day was the start of the 20km distance.

In the women's race, Peruvian Kimberly García Leon took the start, but withdrew from the race after 2 km due to injury. She was well represented by compatriot Evelyn Inga in the world performance of 1:27:42. The first 4 female competitors got under the 90 minute mark. For the fifth place, in the second time of her career and with the limit fulfilled for the European Championships, the domestic Czaková finished. She thus secured the OH and the mother of little Alex can look forward to another start under the five rings. The Slovakians did well overall, Burzalová got under 1:33, Žárská showed the first really solid top XNUMX. In the end, Eliška Martínková did not take part in the race and in Dudince she only cheered on her training colleagues.

The men's race got off to a more relaxed start and no one would bet on a significant break of the 1:20:00 mark midway through the race. In the second half, however, the pedestrians accelerated significantly and the Peruvian Rodríguez managed to win in a national record of 1:19:41. The Ecuadorian Pintado was only 3 seconds behind and the Indian Baboo took third place in 1:20:00. Dominik Černý demonstrated a huge improvement in Zitava's performance in 4th place. The best Slovak walker with a time of 1:20:31 ranked among the wider world leaders. Other Slovaks also did well, Úradník finished in 1:22:34. Morvay also showed a significant performance shift - 1:24:25. The Slovaks are moving up both in the Olympic ranking and in the one for the EC in Rome, and the performance of all three fighters can only be envied by the Czechs.

Several Czechs also took part in the race. Vít Hlaváč was the most successful. He came back in great form from last year's injury and opened the season with a performance of 1:25:50, which is his personal best and the first time he managed to get under 1:26:00. The OH relay is a great motivation for our pedestrians, the fight between Zajíček and Hlaváč and maybe even Morávek will be a big attraction of the race in Poděbrady. The speed improvement of the twenty-seven-year-old pedestrian is a promise for the 35 km track, which will again be on the program at the 2025 WC in Japan.

Lukáš Gdula, who has been doing more cycling lately, also took part in the race and finished 32nd with a performance of 1:37:06. Jakub Pšenička, a competitor from the Czech Republic, finished in 33rd place. Apparently, he is a cross-country skier who is training with coach Piták. He showed a performance of 1:39:47 and a very uncertain technical performance. It is surprising that he was allowed to start. This is not a registered ČAS or WA athlete. If he wants to continue walking, he will have to take care of all the necessary details. At the moment, his performance cannot be counted as a fulfilled limit for Czech championship races.

Dudinská 50 is behind us. It was a beautiful race and, unlike last year, we can say that our walkers came well prepared. A flood of personal records or very good personal performances. New experiences for international referee Nedvídek. And the praise of the Zittau organizers for the kind of race they built during the first two years from the representative of World Athletics Pierce O' Callaghan. All this was brought to us by the Slovakian stop of the World Walking Tour.

We can look forward to the next stop on April 6 in Poděbrady!